Thursday, April 23, 2009

Blog kick-off

Greetings to all who have stumbled across this blog.

I've thought about setting this blog up for quite a while now. I starting following a number of blogs last year when I hit a point in my life where I knew I needed to change my way of thinking, especially in regard to my finances. So this entry is to introduce you to me and explain a bit about what I hope to achieve here. This blog will cover financial planning, frugality, healthy eating and other related topics.

I'm in my mid-forties and I am married to a wonderful guy (let's call him the Optimist). I have two adult sons (one still at home with us) and the Optimist has an adult son (currently travelling overseas) and three daughters who live with their mother but visit and stay with us frequently. We live in a suburb of Wellington (capital city of New Zealand). We both work full-time and earn a great combined income but our overall financial position is not one to be proud of. I think it's a case of thinking that because we have a good income we can then afford to do what we want, when we want to do it. This has resulted in us carrying a significant amount of debt (one credit card and two personal loans) and having no real savings. For quite a while we have lived from payday to payday and the overall position has not improved.

Late last year I sat down and looked at our finances, read a few blogs and decided we needed to take action. So I ordered Dave Ramsey's book (second hand from the US), read it from cover to cover and started the process of getting things in order. Since then we've set up a budget which we re-do each month and have made many changes. The next few articles I post here will explain each of the steps we've put in place.

I'd love to hear from anyone who has feedback or who would like to contribute their own ideas.

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About Me

I've just entered my fifties and am on a mission to live a simpler, healthier life. This blog is where I like to share ideas, recipes and hints for cost-cutting and saving that others may find useful in their own lives. I also post about various adventures I have - usually in the hills, mountains and by the beaches and rivers of New Zealand.
I live in the wonderful city of Wellington, New Zealand.